Movie review - "The Witchfinder General" (1968) ****1/2

Possibly overpraised in some circles because it was the last film of its director, Michael Reeves, who died not long after this was released - it nonetheless remains a startling tough, vivid action horror movie. This was a hit and kicked off the second cycle of Poe movies for AIP but is very different from the Poes - Reeves was a big Don Siegel fan and approached this as a Western, and it feels very Western-y, with chases on horseback across the countryside, and women folk being raped and vengeance driving characters to great violence.

It benefits from a rich historical background: the English civil war with the country divided, lawlessness rampant and witchfinder Matthew Hopkins running about dispensing justice. He's played by Vincent Price in one of that actor's best performances - not hammy, but genuinely chilling. There is excellent support from Robert Russell as his odious companion.

It's very pacey and clear - Hopkins goes for a local priest (Rupert Davies) who is accused of a witch but is talked out of  it by said vicar's niece (Hilary Dwyer) who offers up sex instead. But when Russell rapes Dwyer all bets are off and the priest is killed. Dwyer's boyfriend Ian Ogilvy goes looking for revenge which takes him a while but he ends up chopping Price into pieces. Which to be fair Price deserves but the experience has sent him and Dwyer half mad - the image of her screaming her lungs out is one of many you're likely to take from this film.

The plot is a bit repetitive in places - someone captures someone then escapes - but it's full of action and incident. Ogilvy is a strong hero, Dwyer is very pretty and pleasingly sexually liberated (before the rape). I also liked Nicky Henson as one of Ogilvy's mates and Patrick Wymark's cameo as Cromwell. There is some violence (witchburning, axe choppings) but you're mostly likely to remember the bleak, intense mood of it all.

Movie review - "Cry of the Banshee" (1971) **1/2

This early 70s AIP horror flick, part of their second Poe cycle, has gotten a bad wrap from the fans and even the people who worked on it. I didn't mind it so much though I wish it had been less of a rip off of Witchfinder General, with Vincent Price once again in period clothes tormenting the peasants and accusing them of being witches, and Hilary Dwyer on hand screaming and screaming and screaming.

The actual story isn't bad - Price is a rich lord who is mean to everyone and delights in trying to stomp out witches (more for his own pleasure than legal reasons); he runs into trouble when he tracks down a real life coven of witches, led by Elisabeth Bergner, star of the 30s stage and screen, and they take out a curse on him and his family.

There are lots of subplots going on here, so there's plenty of light and shade and characters with some complexity - Price's daughter Dwyer is in love with a nice servant and gets rogered by him fairly often (Dwyer was good as these English roses with a taste for naughtiness), only for the servant to get possessed; his son has a nasty side; his wife is tormented and spaced out; his step son is sadistic. There's also a drunken gravedigger, the head witch, and a nice priest.

At times it was a bit confusing as to what was going on in part because I wasn't that familiar with many of the supporting actors and had trouble keeping track of who was who. Also it's really nihilistic - the witches are kind of nice but turn to violence very quickly, the nice son has little trouble killing, the nice daughter is killed, the nice servant is possessed and turns into a murderer. Of course there are rape/molestation sequences, which early 70s cinema seemed unable to do without. Also there are places where it's down right laughable - the witches rituals, Dwyer's screaming, and, if I'm honest, Terry Gilliam's opening credit sequence.

But at least its ambitious and was no way near as bad as I thought it would be.

Movie review - "The Oblong Box" (1969) **1/2

The Witchfinder General was success a success at the box office that it ushered in a second cycle of Poe movies from AIP with Vincent Price (even though Witchfinder hardly had any connection with Poe). This was meant to reunite Price and Hilary Dwyer with Michael Reeves, but the latter died during preproduction and was replaced by Gordon Hessler who does a decent enough job... maybe Reeves would have done better, but Hessler has been unfairly neglected due to the fact he didn't die young.

Anyway the plot has Price as an English lord whose brother is disfigured and sent insane in the West Indies, so Pricey does a Jane Eyre and locks him up at home. When he thinks the brother has died he does a body swap requiring some body snatching... at which point it became clear this movie was ripping off a whole slew of others.

It's not a bad story, the avenging voodoo-worshipping West Indians, pretty English actresses (regal Hilary Dwyer and likeable maid Sally Gleeson), a masked brother, a family curse, body snatching Christopher Lee... But dramatically it suffers from dropping Price from the middle and focusing on his brother, who is masked (Alister Williamson), and who we never get a feel for. Dwyer is wasted - what's the point of having her in the film? They would have been better off having a love triangle between Price, Williamson and Gleeson... or have Price aware of what was going on instead of being passive...

I know this is back seat scriptwriting but I can't help it - watching the film is frustrating. There's so much good stuff going on (Lee and Price together, Price back in the Poe saddle) it's a shame it wasn't better. Still apparently production was a hard slog and its meant to be a miracle they got this, so that's something.

Movie review – “The She Beast” (1966) **

The first full-length feature directed by Michael Reeves was a low budget horror flick done in Italy. It’s got a good, solid, if familiar sort of plot- in the 18^th century a really really ugly witch (I suspect played by a man in a wig) is put to death by some townsfolk; before she dies she curses them. In the present day a holidaying couple travel through the area; an accident sees Barbara Steele reincarnated as the witch who goes on a rampage. Actually it’s not much of a rampage; far more problems are provided by local communist police who keep trying to grab the monster meaning Van Helsing (a descendant of the famous doctor) can’t perform an exorcism on the witch necessary to bring Steele back.

The film is full of comedy – mostly involving incompetent communist police and officials. This is typical of Charles Griffith, who directed second unit and a hand in the script, more so than Reeves’ other two films (although Reeves did like comedies so you never know). More typical of Reeves is quite a sexy love scene where Ogilvy is about to take a topless Steele from behind when they’re interrupted by a pervert, an unpleasant rape scene involving Mel Welles (Corman alumni who brought Griffith on to the project) and a pretty girl who seems to wander in and out of the film for that purpose, and a chase sequence at the end. Steele is striking, although it’s a shame her part isn’t bigger (she had to shoot it all in one very long day); Ogilvy’s inexperience shows at times but he’s effective and John Karlsen is excellent. Not sensational but enjoyable, and a must for Reeves fans.

Book review – “The Fast and the Furious: History of AIP” by Mark McGee

Highly entertaining and informative look at the famous movie company, written with passion and insight from McGee. Sometimes he assumes knowledge on the part of the reader which the reader mightn’t have – for instance, starting with a “controversial” quote from Charles B. Griffith that Arkoff was nicer than Nicholson – only strong AIP buffs would have known that Nicholson had the more ethical reputation. But it’s a lot of fun, and and a great read – I wish the book was twice as long. In particular, I wish there was more on AIP in the 70s, and more talk about other key executives (there is some on Louis Heyward, who ran AIP England in the late 60s, but not enough; there is nothing on Larry Gordon, who was in charge in the early 70s).

I’m griping. Among the many positives are it well evokes all the colourful characters who worked there: Sidney Pink with his dodgy Danish films, sfx master (kind of) Bert I Gordon, hack Edward Cahn, film buff Alex Gordon, the under-appreciated Herman Cohen. Of course there’s Roger Corman, the man who really got AIP going, and helped them kick up a notch (although he had nothing to do with their breakthrough film, I Was a Teenage Werewolf - that was Cohen).

The AIP history breaks neatly into several categories.

(1) Early days – starting out as ARC, forming the relationship with Roger Corman, finding it’s feet (a lot of Westerns were made). 

(2) The late 50s double bill glory days – they had their big smash in Werewolf, and created a series of double bills still beloved by buffs, especially the JD and sci-fi films. 

(3) Stepping up in the early 60s. AIP cleaned house in the late 50s and decided to step up with the Poe pictures. This kicked off a big cycle for them, as did the Beach Party movies – they also became skilled at exporting from overseas, particularly Italy. 

(4) Late 60s – increasing respectability, with more and more films made in England and Europe. There was a second Poe cycle, Louis Heyward became more involved, Nicholson lost equal footing in the company after his divorce, Roger Corman’s films were more popular although he was becoming increasingly annoyed with the company. This period ended with AIP going public. 

(5) The 70s - Corman left to set up New World, becoming AIP’s most effective competition, then so did Nicholson to work at Fox (he died soon after), but AIP still went quite strongly, enjoying success with blaxploitation, car movies, thrillers. That decade saw them having their biggest flops (The Wild Party, A Matter of Time, Meteor) and their biggest hits (The Amityville Horror, Love at First Bite, Dressed to Kill, Walking Tall). Then Arkoff made the mistake of selling the company to Filmways - he soon quit and AIP was wound up.

Lots of great anecdotes - Sidney Pink making a film with everyone speaking in Danish, the cheap methods of the early days. (McGee includes the story of making The Intruder - was this an AIP film?) My favourite involved making a horror film in Spain, being worried about censors so they tell the local censors they'll made Abe Lincoln in Illinois and having an actor dress as Abe Lincoln hang around the set!

Book review – “The Remarkable Michael Reeves” by John B Murray

Some film directors have long distinguished careers and never get a bio; Michael Reeves made only three features and gets two. It helps that he died young of course, only 25, and that he worked in the horror field, with its devoted fans. I would have thought that Brian Halligan’s excellent work was enough to satisfy them but Murray’s piece is well worth looking at too; Halligan’s was more of a critical study, this fleshes out the personality of Reeves considerably more. There’s lots more information about his family and girlfriend and the sort of things he did; lots of oral history from his friends, particularly Ian Ogilvy, Nicky Henson, Diana Ogilvy, Paul Ferris. Sometimes it feels like it needed an edit (eg including letters from people who didn't want to be interviewed, repetition) but it's a work of passion and insight and really helps explain Reeves.

Movie review – “The Sorcerers” (1967) ***

Michael Reeves’ second feature film as director has a terrific central idea: an old couple discover they have the ability to take over the mind of a young man (Ian Ogilvy) and feel the sensations he feels. What happens next proceeds logically from things like going to parties, to theft to murder. The end of the second act is when the film turns mean, with Ogilvy (manipulated by the old lady) killing a very pretty, very young Susan George for no reason other than Just 'Cause.

More perhaps could have been made at the anger of the older generation towards the young, especially in the 60s – this film is perhaps ripe for remake. The low budget hurts (we continually cut back to the same disco) as does some of the acting (esp from the female lead, though she is very fetching in some Felicity Shagwell-esque tops). But it's done with energy and flair, even if the tone is very pessimistic.

Book review - Interviews with Wheeler Dixon

Eclectic collection of interview subjects, incorporating British cinema hacks like Ralph Thomas to occasionally-something-special men like Ron Ward Baker and writers like Brian Clements, to usual suspects like Roger Corman and Vincent Price (apparently not about his horror films but Dixon still sneaks in a few questions about Michael Reeves, etc) and some oddities like Kiwi John O'Shea and Wendy Moyes. An interesting collection.

Book review - "Shepperton Babylon" by Matthew Sweet

A wonderful companion piece to histories of the British film industry -it shouldn't be taken as a "start text", but as a way of revisiting history its wonderful, full of fascinating characters and stories.

Sweet's mission seems to have been to reclaim the saga of British cinema from its established legends - to wit, that nothing much happened in British cinema until the 60s apart from a brief period during and after WW2, that Rank films were staid garbage, the 1927 quota act was really bad (cf the 1938 quota act), British silent cinema was a mess.

Sweet goes in through the back door (so to speak) on many things - he talks about Ealing, but focuses on non-comedy Ealing; he analyses Dirk Bogarde, but pre-Victim Bogarde; he looks at Gainsborough female stars, but instead of the usual suspect (Lockwood) his focus is on Phyllis Calvert, Pat Roc and Jean Kent; when he talks about Rank the film he gives most extensive appraisal to is the weird camp flop The Singer Not the Song; when dealing with horror in the 60s he is not so much interested in Hammer and Michael Reeves as Tony Tenser and Patrick Walker (a director of whom I was totally unaware - a big inspiration for Malcolm McLaren, apparently); he devotes a chapter to sexploitation and more pages to Penn Tennyson than Michael Reeves (surprisingly there isn't a section devoted to Tommy Steele).

Full of gossipy tidbits and accounts of interviews with aging film industry participants tend to be moving (a few turn out to have saved their money, thank goodness); it has a sort of Easy Riders Raging Bulls feel to it, but the scholarship is there. I admit I didn't find the stuff on the silent era that interesting (something about that time just doesn't do it for me, maybe because I didn't grow up seeing their films, and also if you don't hear them speak so they become less real - and as Sweet points out, nobody's more forgotten than a silent film star).

The stuff about sexploitation is absolutely fascinating - the 70s were an era when England's most popular films were spin offs of TV shows or comedies like Confessions of a Taxi Driver - depressing, but fascinating. The book has been made into a TV series.

Book review - "Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography" by Victoria Price

A rarity among bios written by children of famous stars in that its author has actually undertaken extensive scholarship - so much so, in fact, that it could stand alone as a bio even without the "daughter" section, that is like a"cherry" on top. Price deserves an excellent book about him and this one is it.

Victoria Price came along when dad was in his mid-fifties - he was an often absent father (which, since we're talking about the 60s when Price was at his stardom peak, you can understand), whom she adored and had a good relationship, until he left her mother for Coral Browne, whereupon things got a bit distant until Browne's death.
So this isn't a nasty grave stomping bio - nor is it a hagiography. It's really well balanced: Price loves and likes her father, admires his skill, but is not slow in shying away from his less pleasant side. Vincent could be a mean drunk, take out his bad moods at home (no surprise when you think about it as everyone who worked with him would remark on how nice and charming he was - he'd have to let off steam some time), probably squirmed out of war service in WW2 (or rather let 20th Century Fox do the job for him), showed anti-Semitic tendencies during the 30s (though he gradually became a great liberal), wasn't particularly brave during the McCarthy era (he was graylisted, and got out of it by writing a letter where he said people who didn't name names were un-American), received "assistance" on a 50s television quiz show. She also - and this really surprised me - admits dad may have been bisexual.

Price had an amazing life and career. He was never an A+ star like John Wayne, but he was definitely a star, one with drawing power at the box office - in the theatre and films, especially in horror. At a time in his life when many actors his age were drifting towards retirement he was given lead roles - indeed,vehicles. Even during the 70s and 80s he remained in demand - perhaps not as much demand as he would have liked but you can say that for every actor.

The book is full of surprises. I knew Price was into art - but didn't know he was able to incorporate it into his career so much. For instance, he ran a few art galleries, bought art for Sears, wrote many columns on it, hosted shows, even travelled the world on behalf of the government or various arts boards on art related matters. Price loved art but there's no doubt art was useful for Price's career - for instance, during a career lull during the 50s, he helped keep his name in front of the public by doing well on a 50s game show, and he made money from lecturing. I was also unaware of this 50s game show scandal -there was a Congressional inquiry into the whole genre following the admissions of rigging on Twenty One into which Price was dragged - although he never cheated it was revealed that the makers of the show had given him some help(i.e. letting him see the questions some time beforehand).
Another surprise was Price's greylisting in the 50s - despite growing up conservative (he admired the Germans for a time in the 30s on his European travels) his association with"premature anti-fascist" groups almost did major damage to his career, and he had to write a grovelling letter to get out of it (like another grey-listee, Edward G Robinson, he was partly rehabilitated by being hired on The Ten Commandments by right-winger Cecil B de Mille).

Price's background is also very interesting. Grandad made a fortune by inventing baking powder - only to lose most of it in the 1893 crash. Dad made a lot of money in the candy business - only he kept it. Vincent was kind of the odd one out in his family, slightly bohemian; he went to Yale, got a degree, worked as a bit as a teacher. Then he went to London to study art and wound up on the stage.

He was lucky - he was cast as Prince Albert in a play about Queen Victoria which had a short but very well received run at the Gate Theatre, then was cast in the same play when it was put on Broadway - the play was a hit and enjoyed a two year run, as good a launch as any actor has ever had. He was also blessed with height, looks and that marvellous voice.
But that's not enough. Price was smart - he knew he had been lucky and made up for it by working extremely hard. For instance, he translated his Price Albert part into German and learned it that way to get the feel of how German-speaking Albert may have thought. He would use his breaks during the long theatre run to work in summer stock. He tried to expand his horizons wherever possible, frequently returning to theatre(in the 40s he had another long run in "Angel Street"). He was polite to journalists and fans and always kept working. He had a good run in the 40s while under contract to Fox.
His career hit a bit of a lull in the 50s but he bounced back big time in the 60s with the AIP Poe films; Price was the biggest name to work for AIP but the studio did a lot for Price, too - they gave him some great roles, at least in the first half of the 60s (no one gets too excited about the ones in the second half of the decade except for Witchfinder General). And so he remained employed right up until the end. He did everything he could have wanted - comedy, drama, film noir, thrillers (he never wanted to do Westerns).Occasionally there's a bit of a whine about "never got to do Shakespeare", but he could have if he'd wanted to, and besides there was Theatre of Blood. Ditto every now and then he'd complain "they won't let me do comedy", but he did a lot of comedy, or "I'm typed in horror films" but some of those films gave him his meatiest parts. Price left it all on the field.

The last section of the book is the "Coral Browne" section - she takes over the book as she seems to have done Price's life (surely he had a bit more impact). Price's daughter was perhaps not the most objective here, but to be fair she quotes others who all seem to say the same thing: Browne was a very sexually active, crazy, funny, flighty woman who acted as a steamroller (knowing a few actors I can picture just what she would have been like). She was an Aussie, who faced prejudice due to her Aussie accent in London - one of her big breaks was an affair with Paul Robeson! She deserves her own bio.

Book review - "Michael Reeves" by Benjamin Halligan

Some directors have long interesting careers never get a biography -Michael Reeves made three features, only one of them really outstanding, and he's had two books written about him (the other was an oral biography by John B Murray). The reason is two fold: Reeves worked in the horror genre, which breeds devoted fans; also, he died while only 25, which is always good to give a story extra resonance. Having said that, this is a very good book, with covers the main facts of Revees' life, and goes into his films in detail, particularly Witchfinder General.
Reeves still comes across as shadowy at times, which I guess can't be helped; perhaps a bit more detail on his mother and final girlfriend might have helped, as they were obviously key players in his life. How did Reeves get to make so many films so young? He was talented, sure, but he basically bought his way in (he was a "trustafarian", as I believe rich kids are known in the UK) - used mummy's money to fork up the fifteen thousand pounds to make his first feature. It did well enough for him to get finance for the next two. (Some of his films were made with money from a strip club and porn empire who were going respectable by investing in films such as Polanski's Repulsion); AIP helped fund Witchfinder. Witchfinder was a good film (I think Reeve's death has caused it to be a little over-rated), which did well at the box office - which makes it surprising the last year or so of Reeve's life was spent trying to make another film. The one he came closest to doing was The Oblong Box (made by another director - Reeves pulled out because of the script); he also considered De Sade" (which I reckon he could have saved) and a number of others. It seems Witchfinder simply took it out of him (there was a battle with the censor over it).
Incidentally, this book argues one of the main reasons behind Reeves' clash with Vincent Price wasn't just that Reeves originally wanted Donald Pleasance for the lead, but that Price made a pass at Reeves and was knocked back. I'd never heard of that before (or that Price was gay,although when you think about it he was fairly camp) and the sources for this aren't strong - do stars normally try to crack on to their directors? I guess Tallulah Bankhead, yes, so... In addition, the author argues Reeves' death was accidental - though he was in a depressed state at the time, and he doesn't rule it out entirely.